


Notes from Paradise and Other Places

by orphan_account



Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!
Genre: Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:49:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 3,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: This contains side stories from my main Kirby fic 'An Unlikely Sort of Paradise', as well as the results of various prompts on tumblr, some of which are completely different AUs. Things canon to the main fic will be marked as such...





	1. Smile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Smile  
> Characters: Customer Service and Fumu  
> Probably canon to 'Paradise'

For most of her life, back when she’d only known him as Customer Service or ‘that guy that sends Dedede all the demon beasts’, it was so very hard for Fumu to tell if his smiles were genuine or not. He did seem to do it all the time, after all. That polite smile was just sort of his default expression.

It didn’t take long for her to figure out it was just another thing he used to protect himself, after she got to know him a bit more. It was sort of sad, really, all the walls he would put up.

Eventually, while it took a lot of effort on Fumu’s part and several others to get him to be less guarded, she caught a few glimpses of his real smile. That was only for seconds at the most, though, but she didn’t let it frustrate her. He just needed a little more time, that was all.

Finally, and she never could remember why afterward, but most everyone was at Kawasaki’s, laughing about something. Fumu looked over and he was laughing too, but it wasn’t his typical mocking laugh. No, he was amused at whatever funny thing it was too, but afterward he kept smiling, just happy to be there. It was genuine and wonderful, even if it had taken nearly forever; Fumu was glad to have been a part of getting some of his true self to emerge.


	2. Two Roads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Two Roads  
> Characters: Customer Service (Jin) and adult!Fumu  
> Fits into either of the two AUs where I ship them...

He wasn’t interested. Jin told himself that, repeatedly. They were just friends, Nightmare damn it all, he didn’t need or want anything other than that!

Well, until he really put more thought into it, anyway. All of a sudden, yes, yes he did need something more; the love and companionship of a certain fireball of a woman from Popstar…

There were so many opportunities, so many things he wanted to show her, if she would join him. Why dream of going to other worlds, he could take her there. He would take her on a tour of the galaxy if she really wanted to! There were certainly things she could teach him as well.

So much they could discover together, but there was always a catch.

Fumu was entirely too set upon her path, to follow the light, to help Kirby. Even if they did somehow become friends, Jin knew she wouldn’t follow him into the shadows. It hurt, gods he didn’t believe in, did it ever hurt, but he refused to force her into anything. She deserved far better than that.

 


	3. Mother Nature (Prompt Attempt 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Mother Nature  
> Characters: young!Customer Service (Jin) and Alya  
> Paradise AU 1: Alya and Elsa run off with Jin and his sister quite early on, fleeing from Holy Nightmare and ending up on Popstar...

It was a long flight indeed, but eventually Elsa discovered a planet that was relatively untouched by the current stage of the war, and one she had been to as well. Hopefully this meant Nightmare would ignore the four of them, as far from the front lines as Popstar was. Though, there was an item the Felisian wanted to retrieve for Jin when he was older…

For the moment, though, the Dracan and the Felisian were guiding their two adopted children through the open door of the ship and into an environment neither of the demons had ever experienced: the great outdoors.

Jin was pretty cautious at first, but when he saw his two guardians take everything in stride he calmed somewhat. Though as always, he was ever curious about the world around him. “What’s this green stuff? What, um, what’s up there?”

Alya had to resist the urge to just scoop him up and show him everything. At the moment he seemed fine on his own, though. “The green stuff is grass, it grows everywhere in places like this. The sky is up there, that’s what a world’s atmosphere looks like when you’re on the surface.”

"What’s that tall brown thing, with green on top?"

"That’s a tree; they’re good for climbing. And when you cut them down and make logs, they’re good for building things too. Like the house we’re going to build soon." With that, the Dracan glanced to her love, who was still inspecting the area with a handheld scanner. "Elsa, you think this is a good place for it? We want to be close to that village down there, but not too close."

Elsa looked up from her scanner, glancing towards the village in the distance. “Yes, I think this should do perfectly … we want to be far enough away to avoid any unwanted attention. Most things living in this area are Cappies, after all.”

Though he was still exploring alongside his sister, Jin was still a bit confused. “What’s a house? What’s a village?”

Now Alya did scoop him up, to give the little demon a better view. “You see all those structures way over there? Those are houses, people on a planet live in those, generally. There’s lots of different kinds, but they’re mostly like those ones. If enough houses are in the same area, then that’s a village. People live there together to help each other survive. We would live there too, but we’re kind of an unusual family; the natives need time to get used to us being around before we go too close.”

The demon tilted his head quizzically at that, though eventually his expression brightened. “D’you think I could make some friends over there, in that village?”

Alya smiled at him for that, proud that he seemed to be adapting pretty quickly. “I’m sure you’ll make lots of friends there."

 


	4. Seeking Solace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Seeking Solace  
> Characters: Customer Service (Jin) and Alya  
> Canon to 'Paradise'

They had built a memorial on the fortress in those distant days, immediately after a certain tragedy. Ostensibly it was dedicated to all of Holy Nightmare’s fallen, but to Elsa and Jin, it was only really in honor of _her_. There was a small garden area and reflecting pool, and a tall, silvery monument in the center of it that could project holograms of those who were lost.

Jin thought it all ended up destroyed when the fortress went up. But when Kazue and Daroach ended up combing the debris field in their Destrayers later on looking for anything of value, by some miracle they discovered the monument intact, floating serenely in space. It did look rather scorched, but it survived. The Wolven and the lord of the Squeaks retrieved it, and of course notified Jin.

Eventually the monument ended up installed in a memorial in Dream Land, this time dedicated to everyone that fell during the war on either side. Ostensibly, anyway. It was close to the village, but distant enough so anyone visiting would have some privacy. As such, it saw some of the same use it had while still back on the fortress: one distraught demon prince heading that direction in full sprint away from whatever upsetting situation he found himself in, holding back his emotions as strongly as he could at least until  he sat down in front of the monument.

So lost to his pain he was, he didn’t quite seem to notice he ended up crying himself to sleep, and continued letting out his sorrows even as he dreamed. With the odd way the dream world and the spirit world would sometimes intersect, eventually the dreaming demon felt someone touching his shoulder, he heard a voice as well.

"Aww, what’s the matter?"

Jin turned to look, only to find himself staring into a set of green eyes he hadn’t seen for well over 300 years. Alya was also one of the last people he wanted to encounter, given what he’d done. “Mom … I—I’m sorry, with how hectic everything’s been, I lost track of the date… y-you know what I mean, don’t you?”

The Dracan shook her head at him a bit sadly. “The anniversary of my passing? Jin, it’s all right if you lose track of the exact date, you should be focusing on the here and now. You’ve dwelt on this for far too long already, dear…”

"But I couldn’t save you! I couldn’t do anything … I can’t make up for it if I forget…"

At that Alya’s shade wrapped him in a hug from behind, even stretching her wings out to surround him as well. “You don’t need to make up for anything, little one. You learned the truth from Galaxia, didn’t you? There wasn’t anything you could do about those Dark Matter things at the time, you were too young and your powers still sealed. I died doing the one thing most important to me: protecting the ones I loved. Please, stop blaming yourself, none of it was your fault. I’ll always be with you; if you must remember anything, remember that…”

Jin was about to say something in protest, but it was at that moment that he felt himself waking up again. He tried to fight it off as much as he could, but there would be no staying asleep for him. He woke in the same spot he’d fallen asleep in, lying there in front of the memorial. The demon wasn’t entirely sure if Alya was a figment, or if she really had just visited him, but her words kept echoing in his mind. In the end, they made him feel better enough to finally wipe away his tears and start heading back toward the village.

 


	5. Mother Nature (Prompt Attempt 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Mother Nature  
> Characters: Dedede and Escargon

Escargon didn’t honestly know why he went along on Dedede’s bird watching trips into the forest, other than to keep the monarch out of trouble. It would be bad if he somehow strayed into Whispy Woods, given how many times they’d tried to kill the king of the forest and Whispy responded in kind towards them.

Thankfully Dedede wasn’t currently on his golf course obsession, so he usually kept a healthy distance from those parts of the woods.

Still, Escargon watched his boss’s antics, the king all excited about the different birds he found, and got something of a goofy smile on his face. Well, all right, there was one kind of bird watching that wasn’t boring.

 


	6. Seeking Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tag between episodes 40 and 41  
> Characters: Customer Service (Jin), Daroach, Kazue  
> Canon to 'Paradise'

Hold it back. Just... hold it back, you have a report to make. You can react later, if there is a later...

That was about the only thought running through Jin's head as he stood there apologizing profusely to his creator. Well, that and the underlying terror of what might happen to him for such a humiliating set of failures. He'd seen people killed for less . . . hell, he'd ordered people to their deaths himself for less! It was bad enough to be played like a fiddle by that little Fighter punk, but to lose their strongest demon beast on top of it? There was a certain part of him that almost  _wanted_  Nightmare to punish him for being such an idiot...

Nightmare didn't care. Pfft, Nightmare never cared, but his reaction wasn't the problem here...

Jin stood there watching the monitor screen where Masher's burning remains were still displayed. It was only after Nightmare departed from the screen behind him that he allowed even the slightest bit of the roiling turmoil just beneath the surface to come out from behind his facade. A low growl emerged from the demon as his fists clenched, his lips curling back in a snarl that would've seemed eerily reminiscent of his father's own constant scowl.

Kirby and Knuckle Joe would pay dearly for this...

In the next instant he ran from the room, off to his own quarters where his personal terminal was kept.

* * *

How many days had it been since then? The demon stopped counting, but from the pile of snapped in half styluses currently in a nearby garbage can, he had a rough estimate of about a week. Jin had maybe slept once, eaten a handful of times (though he kept up with his showers as he couldn't stand his hair feeling all greasy), but the one thing that stood above all else was redesigning Masher. He created his mechanical designs digitally, with a tablet and stylus, but with how angry he felt and still did feel, occasionally the stylus would break from how much pressure he was using to make the lines.

Dedede called a little while ago, which was why Jin was sure it was close to a week. He'd sent Reizou and had the surveillance feed from Castle Dedede idly running in another monitor, though he wasn't paying much attention to it. instead the demon continued to work, now sketching the longer lines that would end up being the top part of Masher's new wings/energy projectors.

Well, he wasn't paying attention, until a voice he only heard rarely came over the video feed.

"... star that roams about the cosmos, the Phantom Star Gerath! ... it will collide before long, as soon as next week, and this world will be destroyed."

Mabel, making a prediction. But none of her predictions ever came true, right? With the state his mind was in, Jin had to actually pull up the star charts to confirm . . . yes, Gerath was headed Pop Star's way, but it wouldn't come that close--

The demon blinked, once, and then the sound of the laughter coming out of him might've sent chills down even Nightmare's spine.

Powered Masher, he could take all the time in the world finishing it up and sending it out after Joe. He would take care of Kirby with  _this_...

* * *

A call was sent to one of the Destrayer fleets in the area. "Daroach, Kazue, I have a job for you... transmitting the data now."

The split screen on the monitor displayed the fleet's two commanders, one a rather infamous thieving rodent, the other one of the more recent recruits, a Wolven fighter and priestess of sorts.

"Uh, Boss, you okay? You seem kind of paler than usual..." Daroach's squint grew a bit deeper as he read over the mission data. "And all you want us to do is find this fiery space rock and shoot at it?"

"I am fine, Daroach." It was spoken in a tone that said Jin didn't want further questions on the matter. "Yes, that is all I require for the moment... though you must strike the precise coordinates I specified."

While Daroach was more questioning, Kazue flicked her right ear a few times and was perfectly happy with just going with it. "The Spirits want us to do our job, Daroach . . . this will all work out in the end." She focused on their boss, looking a little concerned. "Jin? Uh, I mean, sir? We'll just be going now, but you should get some rest after you hang up. You look really tired."

"Your concern is noted, but I still need to report to Nightmare."

"Ah, all right. Get some rest after that, okay? We'll probably be coming back to the fortress to refuel in a few days, we'll see you then!"

* * *

Not too long after that, Jin stood before Nightmare again, this time reporting what would certainly be happening to Pop Star in the near future. "Rest assured. The Phantom Star Gerath is surely headed for Dream Land. A disaster of this scale should get rid of Kirby as well..."

The demon didn't pay much attention to what Nightmare said in response, other than the fact the Emperor of Darkness sounded pleased. With the report given, Jin made his way back to his quarters, but the fury that kept him going that whole time was slowly fading. In the end he didn't even make it to his bed, collapsing on the couch in the small living room area shared between his own room, Rin's and Elsa's.

He would end up awakening to Kirby pulling off the impossible, as well as his sister and mother returning from their respective trips and insisting he remain off duty for a few days after finding out what he did, but for the moment his sleep was peaceful.

 


	7. Two of a kind?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Customer Service and Nastasia from Super Paper Mario  
> Heh, inspired by some back and forth asks … in which a certain salesman has similar powers to another glasses-wearing villain’s assistant, and they end up running into each other somehow.

"…Yeah, let’s not do that again, ‘k? That really hurt…"

The other in the room hadn’t quite managed to sit upright just yet. He made sure his glasses were in their proper place before he was brave enough to pick himself off the floor and look around again. Another backlash like that first one and he probably would pass out. As it was, the headache he felt forming was going to be terrible enough. “One, you went for your glasses first, and two, how was I supposed to know our powers were going to reflect that badly?”

"I guess you have a point. I mean, it’s not like the average mirror gives me any problems. Well, since we obviously can’t recruit the other to our respective causes, maybe we should introduce ourselves? I was going to do that, until I sensed the same power lurking within you." At that she straightened her blouse a bit, making sure she looked her best. Even second impressions could still be important. "I’m Nastasia; Count Bleck’s second in command. And you are?"

The purple haired man took a moment to straighten his tie. “You may call me Customer Service. I am vice-president and head salesperson of the Holy Nightmare Corporation, as well as Nightmare’s second in command. My, we certainly have very similar jobs.” A pause, as he caught his new acquaintance snickering a bit. “What is it?”

“‘Customer Service’? That’s a title, not a name…”

He seemed to pout a bit at her words. “Well, it’s not my fault Nightmare isn’t very creative…"

 


	8. Helping Someone Else Seek Revenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prequel Tag for Ep 60  
> Characters: Customer Service (Jin), Silica

If the silent alarm from the lone courier ship hadn’t caught Jin’s attention, then the searches into their database from the ship’s secure connection certainly would have. My, my, someone certainly wanted to know what Holy Nightmare did about the 'strongest Star Warrior’. Every query entered in had something to do with Meta Knight. Curious, and already coming up with ways to exploit whoever this was, the demon simply forced open a communications channel with the ship.

“… You know, if you wanted to know more about Meta Knight, you could have just called and asked.”

There was a gasp from the ship’s sole living occupant when one of the screens above the computer came to life, and displayed the transmission from the fortress. The bandanna wearing girl recovered pretty quickly, though, her eyes narrowing when she recognized the one speaking to her. “And you expect the daughter of the strongest Galaxy Soldier to pay your ridiculous price for that information, Customer Service?”

Just that one question got the gears in the salesman’s head working, quickly deciding the direction he wanted to go with this. “The strongest Galaxy Soldier… that would make you Garlude’s child. Silica, if these records are correct?”

The girl didn’t confirm or deny anything, instead preferring to stand there and allow the demon to keep talking. It was rather smart of her, Jin thought, even though he did have a dossier open in another window that confirmed she was Silica.

Given the opportunity to keep speaking, he took advantage of it, hoping his hunch was right. “Well, Silica, my prices are always negotiable, depending on what you have to offer in return. Given what happened to your mother… I imagine we share a common enemy. It’s quite strange, isn’t it? The two strongest of the Galaxy Soldier Army, facing Kirisakin together, though in the end only one of them walked away with their life. Not to mention making off with the very powerful item that beast was guarding … even a so-called ‘noble’ Star Warrior may have gotten a bit greedy, with something like that on the line.”

Silica already seemed pretty irritated, and the demon’s words only fanned the flames. “Damn him, a coward and a thief shouldn’t have been the one to survive that! I’ll kill him and claim Galaxia, I swear it, but I still need to find him first…”

And thus the magic words were spoken, Jin smirking nastily as he heard them. The only thing more entertaining than this would be getting to watch the girl tearing up Dream Land’s countryside in her efforts to slay the Star Warrior. “In that case, consider my services in this matter free of charge.” On the other screen above the ship’s computer, a galactic map displayed, which quickly zoomed in on a certain star system. “You will find Meta Knight on the planet Popstar. He’s currently residing in the kingdom of Dream Land, serving as a captain of the guard for King Dedede. His Majesty is a client, but I honestly don’t care how much damage you do to his castle; he’s been late in his payments far too many times.”

The young warrior took all this in, though her eyes narrowed a bit again at the last part. “Don’t expect me to be your enforcer, Customer Service.”

“Oh, I don’t. I’m only stating my company and I do not mind if you bring that place down around their ears. You should not encounter much in the way of other threats, though there is another Star Warrior in that area.” In his eagerness to stick it to Meta Knight, Jin had nearly forgotten about Kirby. The more he thought about it, the more he realized Silica might be a bit under-equipped, given she only seemed to have a sword on her. “Then again, Kirby has the potential to be even stronger than Meta Knight. You shouldn’t go after two Star Warriors with a mere sword; go check the cargo hold, you can have the weapon you find there.”

Silica departed from the ship’s bridge at the suggestion, heading for the cargo hold. While she didn’t see the salesman anymore, he was certainly following her through the ship’s cameras. It didn’t take the girl long to arrive at her destination, and finding one very obvious storage crate in the middle of the hold, she pried it open and discovered a rather odd device contained within. “Hmm, what sort of weapon is this?”

While there were no video screens in the cargo hold, the intercom worked just fine and Jin’s voice filtered in through it. “This is one of my own designs, and rather ingenious if I do say so myself. It is several weapons in one; a machine gun, a flamethrower, a rocket launcher, a sword and a grappling hook are all contained within it. To switch between them, you merely need to change how you’re holding the grips. I was sending this to a warlord on the outer rim, but you should get better use of it. He’ll just have to wait a bit longer for another one.”

With the instructions given, Silica put the weapon through its paces, not actually firing it but making sure she could switch between modes very quickly. It was surprisingly well balanced for having such a variety of uses. Also surprising was the fact the salesman bragged about designing it; he seemed like he would be more interested in money than mechanical design.

Jin let the girl test out her new toy a bit, but there was still business to take care of here. Pfft, she wasn’t going to like him much after this, but he didn’t really care. “My, you picked up how to use that rather quickly; to be expected of the child of a great Galaxy Soldier. However, I said you could have the weapon… I did not say you could have that ship.” Suddenly alarm klaxons began to sound, red lights flickering everywhere. “You have two minutes to get clear.”

Silica jolted at the sudden sounds, as well as the inevitable backstab. “Damn you, I knew I couldn’t trust a stupid demon!” She took off running, towards the airlock she’d latched her own smaller ship onto.

Even with that, Jin’s voice called out to her one last time over the intercom. “A pleasure doing business with you, Silica!“

 


End file.
